the_walking_dead_media_network_projectfandomcom-20200214-history
The Walking Dead Media Network Project Wiki
Introduction This Wiki is here to explain how media networks, such as wikis and internet forums, influence and create new media. Wikis and internet forums can be classified as knowledge communities, online communities that pool their knowledge together to create collective intelligenceJenkins, Henry. "Convergence Culture." Course Readings, ENGL 295. 28.. Collective intelligence is the combined expertise of the members of a knowledge community, the amount of knowledge pooled together is often to much for one individual to knowJenkins, Henry. "Convergence Culture." Course Readings, ENGL 295. 27.. The knowledge communities being looked at are devoted to the text called The Walking Dead, AMC's hit TV series. While texts are normally thought of as written material it also includes material presented through different mediums like TV shows. The Walking Dead takes place in a post zombie-apocalypse America where survivors band together to find safety and hopefully a life away from the walkers (The Walking Dead's version of zombies). '' Internet tools such as Wikis and internet forums are forms of Web 2.0 which, "allows users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue as creators of user-generated content in a virtual community.""Web 2.0."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0 This dialogue is necessary for the creation collective knowledge and the backbone of knowledge communities. An example of a knowledge community that was looked at this semester is "Survivor Sucks". The members of this community use social media dialogue to "spoil" the showJenkins, Henry. "Convergence Culture." Course Readings, ENGL 295. 30.. Spoiling is also important in respect to ''The Walking Dead. ''The internet also allows for the mass production and distribution of fan fiction and fan refashionings. This is especially true for the fans of ''The Walking Dead as there are loads of fan refashionings associated with internet forums I will be discussing. Refashionings are remakes of something so in the case of TV shows making fan fiction stories, fan art, and videos about The Walking Dead. ''These refashionings will be looked at in depth later in the Wiki. Media networks also are useful in creating a connection between the director and writers of show and all the viewers and fans. Not only can fans voice their opinions through online communities but the show producers created another show, ''The Talking Dead, ''a talk show that is aimed at addressing the questions and ideas of the fans. ''The Talking Dead ''is able to address the fans because of media networks and what the fans input to them. This connection between the shows producers and the fans is important because it gives the producers feedback on what they are doing and how their viewers react to it. This bond is important as illustrated by Douglas Rushkoff who says that conversing with his readers is the best way to find out what provokes themRushkoff, Douglass. "A Computer Ate My Book." Course Reading. ENGL 295. 234.. And this important relationship is made possible by media networks and Web 2.0. In this project I will focus on a few online communities that surround ''The Walking Dead. ''The first of these online communities is an internet forum called Roamersandlurkers.comRoamersandlurkers.com Forum http://www.roamersandlurkers.com. Roamersandlurkers.com features five sub-forums; one that is made just for the TV show, one for the comic books, one for games based off the show, one for off-topic discussion, and one for its members to introduce themselves and their fan fiction. The second online community is ''The Walking Dead ''Wikia pageThe Walking Dead Wiki http://walkingdead.wikia.com/wiki/The_Walking_Dead_Wiki. This page, like any Wiki page, can be edited to add new information or change false information. This ability to rapidly change information allows for "Darwikinism" meaning, "the pages undergo a natural selection process like that which nature subjects to living organisms,"Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki because bad information is removed and only the correct information will remain. This is important because it creates a place for collective knowledge that can easily be added to and easily navigated. The final online community I will use is the internet forum Walkingdeadforums.comThe Walkingdeadforums.com http://www.walkingdeadforums.com. This is the official online forum of ''The Walking Dead, ''it releases new episode trailers, breaking news about the franchise, and provides tons of space for members to talk about it. I will use these networks to show how knowledge communities discuss and pool knowledge from the text, ''The Walking Dead. ''Also I will look at the interpretive disputes and many debates that take place over the knowledge communities. These disputes spread from who they want to see casting future characters to how the season will end. My last content section will be refashionings. Refashionings is a big part of ''The Walking Dead because the fans produce so much material. This ranges from parallel stories to fan art and other refashionings available to the public through media networks. Knowledge Communities Roamersandlurkers.com Roamersandlurkers.com is an internet forum that contains over 5,200 topics about The Walking Dead. ''The information most relevant to this topic falls under the "The Walking Dead TV Series" sub section which splits again into posts regarding season 1, season 2, and season 3. This is where most of the knowledge pooled by the community resides. One of the most interesting posts I came across while on the forum was a layout chart of all zombies killed on screen. Not only did it show each zombie but recorded who killed it and with what weapon. This is a good example of the collective intelligence because it would be impossible for one person to know all of this but making use of community it is now available for anybody who would like to know. This is the kind of information that this community likes to collect. Members of this forum tend to look deeper into the show than most fans and pick out the little things that most do not think about. Another example of this is the thread called "Fun Mistakes/ Inconsistencies" where members have picked up on on-screen mistakes made by the cast and producers. These mistakes include anything from perfectly cared for eyebrows and hair on survivors who don't even bathe, to wardrobe mishaps. While Roamerandlurkers.com is not a designated spoiling community like SurvivorSucks its members do enjoy trying to predict future outcomes of the season. A popular thread going on now is predicting how each character (if they do) will die in the current season. Users use preview clips found online as clues to what may happen and where. One of the biggest clues to upcoming events is ''The Walking Dead comic series that the show loosely follows. The community also addresses spoilers in the sense that they do not want spoil the show for its other viewers. They do this by using HTML, hypertext mark-up language, which is used to present special textGetting Started With HTML http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/. In this case they use the code spoilerText/spoiler to hide the text inside the brackets from view unless it is clicked on and it will look something like this. Walking Dead Wiki Interpretive Disputes Refashionings Further Resources References Category:Browse